Herbert Smith Freehills forms Shanghai venture with Kewei, becoming latest global practice to offer legal service in China

The UK firm is the sixth international law firm to receive approval to provide joint legal advice in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone

Overseas firms are barred from practising domestic law in the mainland

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Tourists from near and far taking in the Shanghai skyline from the Bund on 26 October 2017. Photo: SCMP/Features Travel

Published: 12:11pm, 8 Aug 2019Updated: 8:15pm, 8 Aug 2019

Herbert Smith Freehills has formed a venture to operate in Shanghai, becoming the latest global practice to offer advice and international legal services in China.

The firm, with dual headquarters in London and Sydney, will form a joint operation with Kewei Law Firm in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, the sixth global practice to be approved by the Bureau of Justice in China’s premier commercial city.

“This new licence will transform our business on the mainland, and signals our long-term commitment to China,” Herbert Smith Freehills’ Asia executive partner Justin D’Agostino said in a statement.

Overseas law firms and foreign lawyers are barred from providing domestic legal advice in China on their own, and are not allowed to fully integrate with Chinese law firms.

Baker McKenzie was the first to take advantage of a pilot programme as part of China’s commitment to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to open its legal services industry, partnering with Fenxun Partners in 2015. The entry had been joined by Ashurst; Hogan Lovells; Holman Fenwick Willan; and Linklaters.

Other international firms, including King & Wood Mallesons, have used a so-called Swiss verein model to merge with Chinese firms. Under the model, or “voluntary association” in Anglo-American parlance, offices maintain financial and regulatory independence from each other. Dentons and Chinese firm Dacheng combined in 2015 under a Swiss verein model to create the world’s biggest law firm at the time.

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